The Silly Story of my (Un)Birthday

Years ago, social media started asking all the same questions when you signed up: what's your birthday, anyway. And so I, being the kind who wondered what would happen when Skynet came knocking, decided to tell every single social media site (and ultimately every non-government website) in the world that my birthday is April first. (Today, as it were.)

But then, most sites started doing a thing. LinkedIn, for instance, where you're reading this? It told you: "Hey, don't forget to wish Chris a happy birthday." Today. On the day I told it was my birthday.

So, It's an Unbirthday

My actual real birthday is April the 8th. I was born at 2:02AM in 1970. My birth was notable for a few reasons, one of which was that I was born with black feet.

It would seem that I was a real kicker throughout my mom's pregnancy, but because I've always been "extra" as the kids were all saying a few weeks ago, I didn't just kick my mom's tummy. I hooked my feet against my mom's sciatic nerve. The side effect of that was that every time I got in a good kick, my mom would fall down.

Nothing crazier than a bit round pregnant woman falling rapidly towards the ground. Evidently, I did this a lot to my mom. So much so that I bruised the bejeezus out of my little unborn feet. My mom heard nurses talking about the black foot baby in the nursery while they were fidgeting around in her room, and she thought to herself, "Phew. I'm lucky that's not my baby. My baby is perfect."

The other notable reason was that MANY of the people born the same day as me and the day after were named a variation of "Chris." I was "Christopher." I went to grammar and middle school with Kristen. I knew many other Chris-variants all throughout my schooling. It's a popular name around Christians because it basically means some version of the Christ bearer.

Why Don't I Just Change It?

I love my birthday. I love when people celebrate it with me. Truly. By this time, over nearly two decades of various social networks, if I changed it to the real date, two things would happen:

Some number of people would feel bad that they'd been celebrating the wrong day, and also, Skynet would figure out my real birthday, and when the Terminator called and pretended to be me, I wouldn't know it was a terminator Cyberdyne model 800.

By this point, I just celebrate any day in April as also my birthday. I'll be real with you: you can wish me happy anything any day. If it means you're connecting with me, I'll take it.

Celebrate and Connect

We get a little wrapped up in the specifics sometimes. A few weeks back, some of my coworkers and I got together for a meal just to connect and say hi. Being the hilarious human she is, Sasha told the hostess on the way in that it was my birthday. (This was weeks ago, but that's the point - she did it to be funny.)

Our server was very lovely, very celebratory. She kept deferring to me and making fun small talk about birthdays and the like. We all had a nice laugh at it. (And thankfully, no cake with loud clapping servers - wasn't that kind of place.)

We should celebrate more and no, you don't need a reason. "Don't save the good wine," as I've heard it said. (I wrote that letter a bunch of months ago - remember?)

So sure. Today's my birthday. So is the 8th. Or any day you feel like dropping me a message.

I'll celebrate yours when it comes up. Even if it's more than once a year. Why not?

Chris...